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KR Kai Ryssdal Kai Ryssdal Public radio journalist who hosts Marketplace, the American Public Media program on business and the economy.

“United Airlines just ain't having it with AI personal assistants. The company said today it is not going to let agentic AI bots into its systems to book tickets for, you know, actual people. Amazon did the same thing a while ago, no buying via bot. I'll tell you, we'll just see how long they can hold out, right?”

Marketplace (APM) · Money & Markets · November 2026

“United Airlines just ain't having it with AI personal assistants. The company said today it is not going to let agentic AI bots into its systems to book tickets for, you know, actual people. Amazon did the same thing a while ago, no buying via bot. I'll tell you, we'll just see how long they can hold out, right?” — Kai Ryssdal, Marketplace (APM)

Context

Kai Ryssdal's sign-off note: big consumer companies are blocking AI agents from transacting for their customers, and he doubts they can keep it up.

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Transcript

Marketplace (APM) Around 23:12 into the episode
Speaker 1

Well, I use it. Do you think it indicates that layoffs are low?

Speaker 4

…job market. Hiring is weak, hours worked are down, wage growth is decelerating. But he doesn't think that means layoffs must be high as well, that we're somehow missing masses of laid-off workers when we trust reports showing jobless claims at a 50-year low. I'm Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace.

Kai Ryssdal

Of all the changes the pandemic brought to this economy, the whole remote work thing is probably the most significant, despite the best efforts by companies, big and small, to get people back to the office in person. Giving up the flexibility that comes with not having to actually be in an office is just too big of an ask for a whole lot of people. And that is the setup for today's installment of our series, Clocked Out, How Leaving the Corporate World Can Lead to Some New Opportunities.

Speaker 1

My name is Cassie Myers. I live in Arlington, Washington, and I am co-founder of a circuit board design company. I was working for an aerospace company designing circuit boards. Sometimes it feels like I'm doing a puzzle. It's fun. And I got a promotion, a big raise, and an agreement to work…

Kai Ryssdal

Cassie Myers still doing circuit board design, just doing it for herself. Arlington, Washington is where she is. This series, you know, only works with your stories. Share them with us if you would. Marketplace.org/slash clockdown. This final note on the way out today, in which United Airlines just…

Speaker 2

federal government embarked on a huge experiment. It was groundbreaking at the time. The goal to figure out the

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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